Crème de la CREEM
Crème de la Creem
SMIRK "Hope you’ll understand/We’re back/By unpopular demand.” That’s Nick Vicario, customarily self-deprecating in the one-time, would-be chorus of “Greetings,” the opener from Smirk’s new album Speculative Fiction. Though the quip wryly nods to Vicario’s years slugging it out in various punk and indie scenes to only semi-notoriety, it ends up a feint—buried in lo-fi scuzz, belying the album to come in both sound and scope.
Crème de la Creem
At CREEM, believe it or not, we truly have envy for those who shrug their shoulders and say “eh” when it comes to being totally into music. I mean, think about how much easier our lives would be if we were sort of like “whatever” and were totally content with listening to Sugar Ray or Staind for the rest of our lives. The massive amount of FOMO that courses through our veins means we are always and forever on the hunt for that new-new and quickly growing tired of the old. Except Sugar Ray, that shit is fire.
And like a fiend in Tompkins Square Park looking for a fix, we’re always gonna find it, even if we have to go through stacks and stacks of whatever whispercore and subpar indie bullshit is thrown our way. So here are the fruits of our labor, four banger new bands to look out for because ain’t nobody got time for that. Except us, I guess. What’s a social LIFE?
FRED PESSARO
SMIRK